The present disclosure relates to a refrigerator.
In general, refrigerators are home appliances for storing foods at a low temperature in a storage space that is covered by a door. For this, refrigerators cool the inside of the storage space by using cool air generated by being heat-exchanged with a refrigerant circulated through a refrigeration cycle to store foods in an optimum state.
In recent years, refrigerators have become increasingly multi-functional with changes of dietary lives and gentrification of products, and refrigerators having various structures and convenience devices for convenience of users and for efficient use of internal spaces have been released.
The storage space of the refrigerator may be opened/closed by the door. Also, refrigerators may be classified into various types according to an arranged configuration of the storage space and a structure of the door for opening and closing the storage space.
The refrigerator door may be classified into a rotation-type door that opens and closes a storage space through rotation thereof and a drawer-type door that is inserted and withdrawn in a drawer type.
Also, the drawer-type door is often disposed in a lower region of the refrigerator. Thus, when the drawer-type door is disposed in the lower region of the refrigerator, a user has to turn its back to take out a basket or foods in the drawer-type door. If the basket or the foods are heavy, the user may feel inconvenient to use the basket or may be injured.
In order to solve such a limitation, various structures are being developed in which the drawer-type door is capable of being elevated.
Representatively, a structure provided with an elevatable storage container on a rear surface of a withdrawable door is disclosed in Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2008-0101335. However, in this structure, a connection portion between the door and the storage container may be exposed, and electrical devices and structures for the elevation may be exposed to cause serious problems of safety in use.
In addition, force for the elevation is substantially applied to a front end of the storage container. Also, when foods are stored in the accommodation container, it is difficult to perform stable elevation of the accommodation container due to an eccentric load applied to the storage container, and serious deformation and breakage of the door and the storage container may occur.
Also, a structure in which a basket is elevated by an operation of a support member provided on a door is disclosed in Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2006-0053420. In this structure, a support member is exposed directly from a rear surface and a bottom surface of the door to cause problems in safety in use.
Also, a structure for lifting a basket is provided on a front surface of the door. Thus, if a load exists at a lower portion of the basket, the basket may be separated. Thus, it is difficult to provide an effective and stable supporting and elevating structure.
Also, a structure in which a fixed frame and a movable frame are disposed on a rear surface of a door, and a pneumatic cylinder is provided on each of both sides of the fixed frame to elevate a basket by elevating the movable frame fixed to the basket is disclosed in Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2006-0031113.
However, if the pneumatic cylinder disposed on each of both the sides is not accurately controlled, the basket may be tilted. Particularly, when an eccentric load is applied to the basket, the basket may not be elevated due to the eccentricity of the basket.
Also, in this structure, since the pneumatic cylinder is exposed to each of both left and right sides, there may also be safety issues. In addition, a volume within the basket may be reduced by the pneumatic cylinder and the movable frame, which are disposed on each of both the sides.
Also, according to the related art, the basket having the accommodation space or the entire structures corresponding to the basket are elevated. In this structure, the load may be eccentric according to the arrangement of the foods in the accommodation space. Thus, when being elevated, an unbalance may occur.
Also, the basket has to be completely withdrawn from the accommodation space within the refrigerator so as to elevate the entire basket. Also, the insertion and the withdrawal of the basket may be unstable due to an increase in a draw-out distance of the entire door including the basket, and thus, a reinforcement structure such as a rail for supporting the door may be required. Particularly, such a limitation may be exacerbated when the structures for the elevation are provided on the door side.